Here is rant by Angry Asian (Bikeradar) on carbon clinchers.
http://www.bikeradar.com/au/road/gear/a ... now-41027/I currently run some 2008 Zipp 404's with alloy brake tracks weighing 1660g compared to the weight of some current carbon clinchers:
Zipp 404 Carbon Clincher 2014 1620g
Enve 6.7 clincher 1566g
Mavic Cosmic Carbone SLR 1595g
Bontrager Aeolus 5D 1550g
To me it seems there is not much of a weight penalty sticking with the alloy braking surface, which offers much better braking in wet weather.
This raises a question - why full carbon clinchers? What is the advantage?
I reckon the marketing gurus have excelled at convincing everyone they need carbon clinchers because they "look cool". In terms of weight and reliability there are no real gains, and I am sure that between 2008 and now the engineers could have saved 60-100g off of aluminium rimmed carbon clinchers if they tried, but especially in the case of Zipp the wheels seem to get heavier each year (heavier hubs)
Full carbon clinchers are a whole lot more expensive, have minimal weight advantage, often have worse dry weather braking and definitely worse in the wet, heat build up issues, are not recommended for mountainous descents as heat build up could cause blowouts, and some brands have had warping and delamination issues.
I am not anti carbon wheels in any way - I love them, and currently have 3 sets, Edge 1.38 Tubulars (1120g) for days in the hills, FFWD F6R (1350g) for fast flatter days and still light enough for climbing, and Zipp 404 carbon/alloy clinchers that I now use as an every day set.
The above article from Bike Radar calls for standards on carbon clinchers, which I think is a brilliant idea. So many on this forum are going with cheap Chinese rims. I am sure some of them are comparable to name brands, possibly coming out of the same moulds or factories, but with all things cheap or counterfeit, they may look the same and visually be hard to differentiate, but quality is nearly always an issue. Cheaper carbon, cheaper resin, quality control, warranty, testing, etc etc would have to be absent or inadequate in many cases.
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